Blind
by Kexerohs
Summary: The first car crash took away her sight. The second took away her hope. Bella Swan is forced to live with a stranger she calls her father after her mothers death, and faces the realization that rock bottom isn't a very attractive place. RR!
1. Wild World

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Twilight or these characters. Just the thoughts, though I did get some ideas from the movie The Eye. Song lyrics at the front from the song Wild World, not sure who its by. It played in the season one ending of Skins, though. Aha, read and enjoy, pleasee.

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**Wild World**

_You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do, and its breaking my heart in two_

_Just remember there's a lot of bad everywhere, its a wild world._

Different. That's what I was, plain and simple. It was such a clean cut term, you would never imagine it to come with so much baggage. I lived a normal life, I had a normal family and normal friends. And yet, somehow, I am still completely different. Abnormal. But never, ever special. If there was one thing I hated, it would be people assuming that I am something special simply because I am one thing not like the rest.

My mother was stupid. She got pregnant right out of high school and married a man she had been sucked into a false love with. They ended up divorcing a few years later and I never saw my father again. Now, at age sixteen, I have been sent to a town I barely remember to live with a man that I can't bring myself to call my father.

My mother loved me. She wanted the best for me, and she had never stopped blaming herself for my accident. When I was six the two of us got into a horrible car accident. Just another statistic, just another drunk driver, just another life. The man who hit us had died on the spot, and though the world viewed that as some sort of justice for the pain he had caused my own family, I simply saw it as a tragedy. I imagined his own family, grieving the loss of an overworked alcoholic, simply searching for peaceful state of mind.

Our windshield had shattered, the glass piercing my eyes and the impact knocking my mother out. I soon fell into a deep sleep after the crash, as well, but most likely due to the overwhelming pain exuding from my eyes. I awoke two days later, only to come to the realization that that one day was soon going to be etched into my memory as starting point for a lifelong curse - or maybe a blessing, depending on how you viewed the situation. That was the day I lost my eyesight.

I guess, in some ways, that day was a blessing in the disguise of a tragedy. My mother and I had both survived, and the only major damage had been the damage done to my eyes. With the blindness had also come my freeness from judgment. I was no longer subjectified to my own personal prejudices and fears - the world was like a giant, blank puzzle. All the pieces fitting together perfectly and equally as well, no single person sticking out any longer as the black sheep or nonconforming, indifferent being. Everything, to me, was of equality. Appearances failed to matter, and a skinny person became that of an overweight one, as a black man blended in with a white one.

That's not to say that I became a overly loving hippie - though free of the prejudices that eyesight brought upon people, I was still subjected to my own personal opinions. With the loss of eyesight came the intensification of my other senses - like smell, hearing, and touch. If a man wore way too much cologne or a mother spoke with an awful sharpness to her child, it was still a simple matter of whether or not their personality meshed with mine.

Though for a while it was hard for me adjust to my new lifestyle of reading Braille and using a walking cane, since I was introduced to the world of blindness at such a young age, it was much easier for me to adjust to the new way I was to live. Though my mother wanted me to attend a school for the "gifted", or in other words, the children that needed extra, special attention (there's that word again), I decided early on that I would much rather attend a school filled with normal kids. And so I did, and I lived on normally. At first the kids looked at me oddly, what with my eyes a faded grey and my tendencies to stick close to the wall as I walked around outside and in the classroom, but when you attend a school with over 6,000 kids its easy to blend in with the vast difference of everyone.

Ten years has now passed since my accident, and I would still be living that almost normal life if it hadn't been for that stupid, stupid accident. I play the violin, thanks to my mother wishing for me to have some sense of normalcy in my life soon after my accident, and I'm actually pretty good at it. I had a big concert I had been due to play at, and it had soon sold out after the tickets had first gone on sale. My mother had planned weeks ahead to attend, like the supportive mother she always was, and yet this quality of hers had been what had ultimately brought her to her demise in the end. It had been raining and the roads were way too wet for her crazy driving, and during my opening sequence number she had driven into oncoming traffic. One crash had been the end to her hope, and another crash had been the end to her life. If it wasn't so tragic and personal to me, I might find it quite poetic. Two months have passed and I haven't picked up my violin since.

Two months have passed of me living with this stranger, my father, Charlie, and in two months we have shared a total of zero meaningful conversations. Two months of him treating me like I was just a normal teenage girl, two months of me being grateful for that. Two months of him acting with complete ease and two months of me blaming my guilty conscious for everything that went wrong with my life. Two months of summer and finally two months ending. I guess I'll just have to try and make it through this thing two months at a time, at least until I turn eighteen and can move far, far away - to a place where memories can surpass me and I can just be at peace. Though at this point that seems close to impossible, its still nice to dream. The only difference between my own personal dreams and the dreams of others? My own are blank, dark, and shadowed - their colorless and faceless, ultimately picture less. Just like my life.


	2. We Are Broken

**Authors Note:** Blah, these first two don't have much to them, just kind of like introductory chapters, but the next most definitely will have a BellaxEdward interaction for real. Andd, a Bellaxother vampire interaction, as well! Feel free to guess as to who that will be. And ehmm, I'm not certain I like the BE interaction towards the end. Hmm, I don't know. Hopefully I'll get better at that, aha.

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing except the ideas, blahblahblah. We Are Broken by Paramore.

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**We Are Broken**

_With my wide eyes, I've seen worlds that don't belong._

_Cause we are broken, what must we do to restore our innocence, and all the promise we adored_

_Give us life again, cause we just want to be whole_

I lightly ran my hands over the coded tags placed precisely on the inside of each of my clothing, contemplating what the appropriate first day of school attire was for Forks High School. Charlie (I still couldn't bring myself to addressing him as dad, though out of embarrassment for calling him his formal name to his face, I usually just spoke to him with the term "you") was waiting on me patiently downstairs, reading the paper and eating a bowl of cereal. He usually left for work an hour or so before I woke up, but due to our situation he had stayed home later so that he could give me a ride to school. Oh the woes of lacking eyesight, I figured it was better to drive with him in awkward silence rather than take him up on his suggestion of getting me a "driver".

I still wasn't sure how I was to get home, though, considering my father was the sheriff and all. That was a question I was forced to push to the back of my mind, or else I might never decide on something to wear. I finally settled on my favorite pair of faded and ripped jeans, pairing them off with a graphic tee that read "love will tear us apart" and a sparkly, cable knit sweater. Slipping on my pink converses and running a brush through my simply straight hair, I finally decided to make my way downstairs, picking up my cane and backpack by my bedroom door as I headed out.

Upon entering the kitchen, my nose was wafted with a mixture of the most awful smells I had ever been forced to intake. Charlie's voice rang out in my ears apologetically, "I tried to cook breakfast for us."

A light laugh escaped my lips as I replied, "Its okay, your lucky I'm such a great cook, otherwise it might be pizza deliveries and Chinese take out every night." With that he joined in on the quiet laughter, and the two of us made our way out to his car. The ride was shorter and a lot less awkward than I had expected, and before I realized it we were stopping and pulling into the schools parking lot.

"Want me to come with you?" Great, and there it was. I had avoided it the entire summer, probably because for me it was spent cooped up safely inside the house. But now the pity and worry was filling Charlie's voice, and I clenched my jaw to keep from screaming.

"Yeah, of course. And then we can eat lunch together and you can cheat off me in English." I could feel him tense, and I soon felt idiotic for acting so childishly. Still, I couldn't bring myself to apologize. "I've got it, Charlie." And with that, I was out of the car and walking as quickly as I could in the direction that I assumed the front office would be in. I had my coded map in hand, and minutes later the lady at the front desk was addressing me with distaste.

"Sunglasses are not permitted to be worn during school hours, young lady." With that sharp remark, I slid my oversized black shades off of my face and into my backpack, taking my time before I lifted my gaze in the direction that she was speaking from.

"Oh, my." Was all she managed to muster as I assumed she took in my faded and wandering gaze, and a few seconds had passed before she finally composed herself. "You must be Chief Swan's daughter, Isabella."

I smiled at her with a false warmness and nodded my head before replying, "Yes, ma'm. That's me. I'd like to pick up my schedule, if its not too much of a bother. Char- my dad told me they'd have one ready for me in Braille." I was used to adults placing accusations towards me and then to them quickly turning into a pitying mush. It was easy to play the role of the overly kind, overly energetic blind girl. That's how I felt a lot of the time, like I was just playing some stupid role that had been handed to me.

"Oh, you sweet girl, of course I can get that for you." After a moment of hearing her ruffle around her desk, a comforting piece of paper was placed in my hands, and then she spoke up again and crushed my comfort, "Would you like for me to get someone to escort you to your classes? Here, let me find someone who has first time block with you…"

I shook my head furiously before replying, "No, no, no. I've got it, I can find the class." My voice was stern and unwavering, and before she could argue with me I had turned on my heal and headed out the door and into the cool air.

After minutes of searching around the school idiotically, a boy had walked over to me and grabbed my arm lightly. I fought the urge to flinch away from him.

"Hey, I'm Eric. You must be the new girl." I closed my eyes tightly and clenched my fists before nodding. "Chief Swans daughter, Isabella?" I nodded again, not even bothering to tell him I preferred Bella. "What's your first class? Maybe I could show you the way."

Not wanting to be dubbed as that bitchy and blind new girl, I smiled warmly and ran my hand lightly over my coded schedule before replying, "AP English with Mr. Nowak." I felt the boy next to me bounce lightly, and when he told me that's what he had first, too, I inwardly grimaced. Fifteen minutes into my first day at a new school and I was already being treated as the new charity case. He had already begun escorting me to the class, though, and not wanting to be rude I let him tug me around glumly.

And, to tell you the truth, that's basically how the rest of my day went by. I could feel the stares of people on me as I walked into each classroom, and a select brave few would attempt at talking with me. Most of them talked slowly and cautiously, as if I were an old deaf woman they feared they would upset by their pestering questions. One boy even had the nerve to flirt with me on my first day at a new school, Mike something or other, and I could only dumbly wonder why he would want to flirt with me, of all people.

I guess that's the problem I face regularly with being blind. Not the incapability I have to see others, but the nonexistent face that I hold myself. My mother explained to me in great detail on a regular basis in the past how I looked. She described my quirky facial expressions and my effortless smile. From her descriptions, she made me sound beautiful - though her opinion was impartial considering she was my mother, after all, and mothers tended to lie on occasion about the beauty of their daughters.

Still, I knew that I had long, straight brown hair and that before the accident my eyes were brown - though they still beheld a large, doll like quality in them, despite the faded coloring. She told me my figure was lithe, and from the feel of my body and the size of my clothes I knew I was rather thin. But not in a frail, breakable way - despite the fact that due to my condition that was how most saw me, but more in a soft, cuddle worthy type of way. My skin was pale, and my mother often told me it was like a porcelain doll I had as a child. I think that was a nice way of her to tell me I was ghostly pale. And so the descriptions of how I looked went, expanding on my beauty and exaggerating my appearance.

Still, I figured I must not of been horrible to look at, since quite a few people ended up making nice with me. And really, lets be completely honest here: I was blind, not slow or mute or deaf. I couldn't see others but I could still speak with them, and I had no hideous features that others felt forced to look at. The world, especially high school, is a very shallow place. As long as someone looked pretty enough and wasn't completely unapproachable, then they became someone you could relate to. In the end, it all came down to the judgments and prejudices I had been lucky enough to be able to live without.

I had been invited to eat lunch with a girl named Jessica, and I soon found myself seated at a crowded table with a bunch of people I couldn't remember the names of. Jessica sat across from me, blabbering on and on about something I didn't care too much about, and so I let my ears tune out and lost myself in thought.

Unconsciously my eyes drifted around, and although I was unable to see I felt an odd connection to something far across the cafeteria, a table, I assumed, and felt as if someone's gaze was locked on me. Jessica soon took notice of this, too, as I heard her body shift and her voice fall silent as I could only imagine her looking around the cafeteria to see what had caught my attention.

Underneath her breath, in what I assumed was meant to be a whisper that I wasn't supposed to be able to hear, she muttered, "They even manage to catch the attention of a blind girl, gaahwd." I clenched my jaw, an action unnoticed by Jessica, and felt hear shift her body back so that she was facing me.

"Their the Cullen's and the Hales. All ungodly beautiful, all taken. Emmett with Rosalie, Jasper with Alice. And they all live together, sick, right?" I shook my head to show her I was listening, and with that action, she continued, "Well, and there's Edward, but he doesn't date. Like, anyone, so I wouldn't waste my time, if I were you." I could read her underlying message, which was, 'If he turned me down, then there's no way in hell that he's going to go out with a blind girl, like you. Even if it is out of pity', and so I quickly excused myself from the lunch table, in order to seek refugee in the girls bathroom. Five minutes later the bell rang, signaling my next class, Biology, and in a matter of minutes I had been ushered towards the back of the class, in order to sit next to the infamous Edward Cullen, himself.

On my way to sit down at the table, I got so caught up in all the stares I could feel boring into the back of my head, I accidentally tripped over my own cane and stumbled into a corner desk. I heard a scatter of quiet giggles, at least until a few moments had passed and I assumed they had all remembered I was blind - which was when the room fell back into an awkward silence.

With my face what I could only imagine a deep, beat red, I bit my bottom lip and sunk down into my seat. The boy next to me, Edward, was quiet and his presence seemed distressed. I could hear his jaw clench and unclench, as what his fists I could only imagine were doing by his side as well. The class was long and seemingly never ending, and by the time the bell had rang and signaled the end of class the boy beside me had swooped out of the room quicker than even I had. Considering P.E. was a mandatory class and with my condition I wasn't capable of participating in it, I glumly made my way to the library for a free, study period.

With the end of the school day I found myself walking quickly towards the parking lot, in hopes of my father finding me and picking me up. Unfortunately on my way there I lost balance again and bumped into a stone hard chest, my cane clattering to the ground. This was very uncharacteristic of me, even though I was quite clumsy. I assumed it could only be do to my nerves that the first day had brought on, and as I heard a snarl come from the person I had bumped into, matched with a, "Watch where your going," I recognized the voice as Edward Cullen's. As I bent down to pick up my cane and listened to his quiet footsteps take off quickly in the opposite direction, I was brought back to the question that had been formulating in my mind ever since our first encounter in biology: what was so special about this jerk of a boy?

A few seconds had passed of me just standing there, clutching to my cane like it was a lifeline and looking like a total and complete imbocile. What in the world had I done to that boy? He was acting as if I had tried to run him over with a motorcycle or something horrid like that - which was very unrealistic and dramatic, an easily unlikeable trait in a person. Before I had completely thought over my actions, I felt my feet moving in the direction he had run off in, and quickly realized that he had ran off in the direction of the main office, a place I had already begun to hate.

I quietly stepped into the room, my eyes pinned in the direction of the conversation. I had placed my sunglasses back on as the day had ended, and so my shaded eyes closed with concentration as I listened to their conversation. Edward was going on about how he needed out of his Biology class and that he would take any other class he could get, and she was telling him it wasn't possible. Oh, so thats it. I hadn't been imagining anything - he was simply a snobby boy who very much disliked me. But why? What had I done to him? It couldn't be because I was blind, unless he was a jerk and prejudice.

"Oh, good afternoon, Isabella! Is there anything I can do for you?" I lifted my head and shook my head no. I gave a small smile and a wave, before listening to the movement of Edward Cullen as he exited the door. I quickly moved after him, stepping out into the chill of a post-rainy day and listened to his rapid footsteps in front of me. Suddenly, he stopped, and I could hear as his feet crunched against the ground, a movement I recognized as he turned to face me. I could feel his body presence close to mine.

"Could you stop following me?" I gazed down at the ground, before looking back up and giving him a small smirk.

"Are you seriously that conceited? Ever think that I have to head out to the parking lot, too?" I listened as he fell silent, and shook my head in amazement. "I really don't see what everyone thinks is so attractive about you. From what I've gathered, your nothing more than a stuck up jerk." I paused for a second, before taking my glasses off and lifting my hazy gaze to meet his, "Or is it that you just can't stand blind, teenage girls?" With that, I stuck out my cane and continued walking towards the direction of the parking lot. After a few seconds had passed, I heard his loud footsteps beside my own quiet ones.

"You have no idea what your talking about." His harsh voice was close to my ear, and the action of him grabbing my arm to stop me was enough to send chills up my spine - though the distaste I had for him was much larger then the tingles.

"I'm blind, not stupid." It was a simple statement, one that many often overlooked. They thought that because a part of me was broken, the rest of me was too. And though I never showed it, at times I thought that way, too. It seemed I was always playing this role of the happy go lucky blind girl, rather then really let the true me shine through. I wasn't even all that certain who the real me was anymore, though it seemed like this Edward Cullen was capable of bringing out the worst in what I could only assume was the real Isabella Swan.

"No, your just confused." Boy, was that an understatement of the year. "Todays just been a bad day for me, is all."

"Well, for my sake, I hope tomorrow is going to be a much better day for you." And with that, I turned to go, but not before I heard him murmer, "If only you knew." I paused for a brief moment, before turning my head slightly to give him a small smile,

"You know, your a lot more complex then you let on." And with that, I parted, hoping that my too-faithful father would be waiting for me in the parking lot.


	3. Say What You Will

**Note: **sorry for the wait! pleasee review

**Disclaimer: **own nothinggg

**Say What You Will**

_say what you will, before its too late_

An entire week had passed, and after our encounter that Monday afternoon, I hadn't laid my hazy eyes on Edward Cullen once. It seemed as if he had dropped off the face of planet, and though Jessica reassured me the Cullens were known for their instantaneous disappearing acts, I couldn't help but feel as if he had suddenly left because of me. In addition to that fact, the rest of his family was still here. And why would just one boy out of a seven member family go away on vacation for an entire week? Not only that, but for _the first week of school_? I was often one to over indulge situations by reading a bit too far into them, but still. You have to admit it was a little fishy.

And yet I found myself actually enjoying my time spent in Forks minimally during his absence. I no longer worried about what I had done to make him so angry but instead focused all of my extra attention on school work, and I even managed to gain a few more friends - a girl named Angela and a boy named Ben. The two seemed perfect for one another, though they themselves couldn't seem to realize it. Mike proved to be nothing more than annoying, and Jessica kept pestering me about my life back at home and more then once I heard her mutter something very rude to me under her breath - an action that I guess she assumed a blind girl wouldn't take notice of.

Although Charlie had started off well enough, encouraging me when needed and letting me have my space, a few days after the first day of school he began questioning me about all of my past eye treatments. He even went as far as to ask me, bluntly, if I had ever attempted an eye transplant operation. Which is why I replied, rather bluntly myself, that I never really saw the point with it. With this remark he question why, and I put it as simply as I could: I was content with my life. I wasn't handicapped anymore than he was, I was used to being blind. I had lived with it almost my entire life. And I had never been one to take well to change. Still, he couldn't take no for an answer, and ended up making an appointment for me to see some doctor at the local hospital. Apparently this doctor was "a miracle worker" and I really needed to "take charge of my condition". I smiled politely, of course, but mentally flicked him off to keep myself from screaming out in frustration.

My mother had never treated me this way, like I was some lost puppy that needed saving, and I had never realized how grateful I had been towards her for that - at least not until now, not until it was too late. Friday couldn't come fast enough, and when the final bell rang, signaling the end of the day and the start of the weekend, I let out a loud breath of relief. My father still found a way to screw me over to no end, however, as I packed up my books and felt the presence of a small body standing rather closely to me. Turning my head slightly, I slipped on my sunglasses and sent my gaze in the direction that the small figure was standing in.

"Uh, yeah?" I mentally kicked myself for sounding so idiotic, but the girl seemed completely unfazed by my stupidity. I wasn't certain if I should take that as a hit or a blessing.

"Hey! I'm Alice, its a pleasure to meet you, Bella!" Oh my God, everything that came out of this girls mouth was bouncy and lively, and I could only imagine her jumping up and down as she spoke. My thoughts were confirmed, too, as I heard her clap her hands together and the quiet thump of her feet on the shag carpeting.

"I just _adore _your shoes! Miu miu?" I let a small giggle escape my lips as I hoisted my backpack over my shoulder and lifted my cane.

"More like vintage shoe store in the city, five bucks." I swear I could hear her eyes go wide and her mouth open in a small "O" shape. Though the over enthusiasm was a bit too much, I had to admit it was also a bit refreshing. Especially in a place as dull as Forks, filled with a bunch of walking dramatic zombies; like Jessica and Mike.

"Oh, wow! You are SO my new shopping buddy!" I felt her lithe hand wrap around my upper arm as we made our way out the door. "Oh my gosh, your probably wondering why some psychotic stranger is all up in your business, huh?" I broke a small smile and shrugged, seemingly nonchalant.

"Yeah, well, yeah." I laughed slightly before adding, "Don't get me wrong, your really nice, and I'm definitely not complaining about your shoe complimenting skills, but it is a bit odd."

"Duh, I should of said what was up when I first stopped by you. I just get so distracted sometimes!" Her giggle was so melodic, just like her voice, almost as if it were coming straight from a handful of wind chimes, blowing in the breeze. "Your dad asked Carlisle, the doctor, if he could squeeze you in an appointment at the hospital today, and he said sure, but then your dad was all, oh no, how will she get there? And that's where I came in and was all, oh, me! I'll totally give her a ride! And here we are!" Yes, here we are. One big breath later.

"Oh, right. That was today, huh? Great." My voice was dripping with bitter cynicism, though Alice either took no notice of it or simply overlooked the fact. Oh, wait. So she was one of the siblings that the whole school was so hyped up about? I couldn't see why they would all be so quick to judge her, I mean, she seemed nice enough. Not anything like the type to stab you in your back or start nasty rumors about you and a gym teacher. No, she was more the giggly school girl type you hung out with when you needed someone to brighten your otherwise dull and crappy day. Then again, that was just my judgment from the minute long conversation I had held with her. Despite that, I liked to think I was a pretty good judge of character.

As we neared the parking lot, I felt myself losing all control of the situation at hand. And trust me, I had never been the type to endure helplessness - which probably sounds pretty odd, coming from a blind girl and all. "Listen, Alice? This really isn't neccessarry, I can _so_ like, _totally_ find my way there on my own." I figured the best way to be understood by the pixie like girl was to stoop to her level of utter and oblivious happiness.

"Nice try, Miss Swan! Your father said you'd try to swindle your way out of this appointment." I supressed a groan and let a tight grin place its way on my lips. I wasn't about to argue with her, and instead let her lead me into her car and felt her watchful eyes as I buckled myself in. I guess she was afraid I'd try to make a run for it or something. Oh, what a sight that would be, the blind girl jumping out of a moving vehicle and stumbling around like an idiot.

No, I figured I could endure a ride and just slip off once she dropped me off at the hospital doors. I later came to found that wouldn't be as easily said as done, though, but in the moment the plans of escape slipped my mind as I became consumed with insistent chatter. Alice was quite the talker, if you hadn't figured as much already. But it was nice, having someone fill in all the empty gaps of silence. She made me feel welcome and less odd, like I was some freak she had to take care of. She kept the talk light, breezing over nonimportant topics like clothes and telivision shows and celebrities. She was acting as if we were "girlfriends", even though I had just met her not twenty minutes earlier.

As she pulled to a stop and shut the car off, I planned to quickly slip out of the car and duck inside the hospital until she pulled away, waiting until the coast was clear to leave. But she wouldn't have any of that, of course - it was almost as if she knew what I was going to do before I had even knew I was going to do it. If that makes any sense at all. Anyways, she made a point of walking me not only inside the hospital, but all the way to the room where i was to meet her father or uncle or _whatever it was_ that he was to her, Carlisle. As I sat down on the paper wrapped bed, Alice said a quick goodbye and quickly left the room - bouncing all the way down the corridor, I bet.

"Its a pleasure to finally meet you, Bella. I'm Carlisle." I smiled politely, but inside I was questioning his words. A pleasure to finally meet me? Who had told him about me - Charlie? Still, it was a bit odd and a bit formal for my tastes. As was the informality of him telling me to call him by his first name.

"Nice to meet you, too." I replied, because I figured he was waiting for me to say something. And it wasn't like I was about to bring up the real reason I was here.

After a few basic checks of my heartbeat and blood pressure and all of those annoying, pesky things doctors check even though your pretty sure its not even needed, we finally got down to the real business of why I was here. I figured it would be best to play dumb. "So, Bella, your father told me that you've been looking into getting an eye transplant?" Funny how he said it as a question but it was really anything but.

"He did, did he? _Huh_." I shrugged my shoulders and smiled sweetly, "I really hadn't taken that into much consideration, to be completely honest with you."

I expected him to tense at my blunt ignorance, but instead I heard a heartfelt laugh in his voice as he replied, "Yes, well, its always nice to keep our options open, isn't it?" I meekly nodded before he continued, "Now, I've looked into your medical history, and it seems you were added to a waiting list around a year or so ago, which means you won't have to wait very long for a doner." He continued on, explaining the difficulties of the surgery and the forms that would have to be signed. And warning me that there was no one hundred percent chance that the surgery would work, but my mind was elsewhere. A year ago? My father hadn't had anything to do with me a year ago, he had been oblivious to my needs and my difficulties, at least thats what I had assumed. Which meant my mother had added me to that list, my _mother_. The woman who had been so supportive and kind and caring and understanding of what I had wanted. She had never pressured me or showed me pity. But it turns out that the entire time she had been plotting behind my back, planning this surgery - a surgery to make me _normal_. Because she had wanted a normal daughter.

The rest of the appointment went by in a blur, me semi-listening and nodding my head at what seemed like the right parts to nod my head at. Finally I was free to go, and I found myself stumbling out of the doctors office, a packet of papers that I was supposed to sign tight against my palm, and a throbbing pain in the back of my head. It wasn't until I had stepped outside into the fresh air that I realized how stupid I had been. My mother had never wanted me to be blind, it was just a mistake. A mishap. A _tragedy_. It had probably been her biggest regret, and she had probably wished every day of her life for a normal daughter.

As I sunk down onto the curb, the papers crumpling in my hand, I didn't even bother worrying about how I was going to get home, I was too caught up in this latest revelation. But then I heard a voice I would of recognized from a mile away, and I groaned in response to his question of, "I'm not really certain, but those papers looks pretty important for you to be crumpling them up like that." So I guess he's back.

"Is there a reason your here?" I asked bitterly, as I turned my head in the direction that Edward's voice was coming from.

"Well, unless you plan on walking home, then yes. I was told to give you a ride." I rolled my eyes and stood, placing my cane on the sidewalk in emphasis.

"I can get home on my own, but _thanks_ for the offer." My voice dripping with sarcasm, I turned on that cue to leave and found myself tripping over a root growing over the broken sidewalk. I expected the cold, threatening sidewalk to make a lesson out of my face to all blind girls everywhere, but instead I felt cold, strong arms wrap around my waist protectingly. As I was brought back into a standing position, Edward's body closer to mine then ever before, I had to push back the electrifying tingles that shot up my arm. This guy was a major asshole, I didn't want anything to do with him. So why were the tingles so hard to ignore? I let a small _hmph, _escape my lips as I pushed past him and headed towards the side of his car. "I guess I could use one, quick ride home." I swear I could hear him grin.

Once inside the car, I was surprised to find things a lot less horrible then I had expected them to be. Sure, it was still a bit awkward, what with me sitting as close to the passenger door as possible, and him flying the car through the winding roads in what I could only assume would be a very law-breaking speed. But the conversation was easy. I found out he listened to classical music, something we had in common - though I only listened to it on occassion because it had been something my mother was addicted to, especially when she cleaned house. Edward was orphaned as a child, and thats why he lived with his Aunt and Uncle. It also explained why they were so young, as Jessica had pointed out in a conversation I had had with her the day before. I even found myself asking him why the town was seemingly so obssessed with his family, which led to a short silence before he let a small chuckle escape his lips,

"Its a small town, Bella. They have to have at least one odd family out - so why not pick mine? We just moved here two years ago while in comparison most everyone else has lived here their entire lives, and on top of that, we aren't exactly the most conventional family around." I could feel his gaze on me, and I turned my head towards the window so he couldn't see my expression.

"Your family is rather distant, though. Or at least thats what most everyone in town thinks, or so I keep being told." Resting my head back into the chair, I listened to Edward's melodic voice as he replied,

"I never thought you the type to believe small town rumors, considering." _Considering_... the word hung in the air, sharp as a knife. Considering I'm blind, meaning I should be free of judgement. Well, its not that simple, is it? Its easy to judge people, only I judge by the sound of their voice rather than the color of their skin.

Changing the subject, "Well I guess you don't have to worry about being the odd family out anymore, huh? It seems the Swan's have taken that spot for you. Its pretty hard to compete against a blind girl who..." I trailed off, about to say, who moved in with her absentee, falsely caring father after her mother died on her behalf. Luckily, I caught myself in time.

"What happened to you, Bella?" I didn't know if he meant what caused me to move here, what happened to my father and me, what happened to my eyesight, or just a general overview of what made me so distant. Maybe he meant all of the above. I caught a lucky break, though, and found him pulling to a swift stop in front of what I assumed was my house, and I ended up sliding out of the seat and out of the car faster then you can say, its a long story. Stupid Edward Cullen, opening old wounds and acting caring and kind and just so... so... stupid! I wasn't going to let him get to me, I told myself as I opened the front door and stepped inside. But even as I said it I knew it wasn't true. Its impossible to not let a boy like Edward Cullen get to you.


End file.
